Crafted by veterans from 2K Australia / Irrational Games with titles such as BioShock, Tribes: Vengeance, Freedom Force and XCOM under their belts – City of Brassis a punishing first-person rogue-lite from Uppercut Games. Set in a city filled with treasure, traps and ghoulish foes. Armed with scimitar and a whip that can grab, trip, disarm, stun or shatter as well as swing, players will lash and slash, trick and trap their way to the heart of an opulent, Arabian Nights-themed metropolis – or face certain death as the sands of time run out.

From the press release:

Leaping from the pages of the Arabian Nights, adventure awaits in the accursed City of Brass – a place of legend beneath the sand, filled with danger and reward. Infested with mischievous spirits and deadly traps, its shifting streets are brimming with the wealth of a nation. Players assume the role of a cunning thief, battling to reach a fabled treasure at the city’s heart, wielding a blade and whip that can be used to disarm, trip or stun enemies, to swing to safety, grab inaccessible objects or even break through flimsy barricades.

But the city itself also has teeth. Players have to leap across pits, slide under blades, dodge spears or arrows, evade or employ sprung paving slabs, and sidestep poison gas traps – all the while manipulating these hazards to their advantage against diverse supernatural foes.

City of Brass has eternal replayability, designed to encourage combinative gameplay within an ever-changing, carefully optimized cityscape. Gamers must learn to manipulate every system if they are to survive, moving swiftly and deftly through each level, balancing the need for loot with the absolute requirement to escape within the time limit.

“Developing a game with multiple, interacting systems that players can freely combine feels like a return to our roots, drawing on our experiences working on BioShock and many of our other favorites,” explained Ed Orman, Lead Designer. “Players must learn how to use the traps to kill their foes, and even turn enemies against each another. You’ll perish in the City of Brass – often, and quite horribly – but as your skills improve and you discover new ways to cheat death, you’ll return to fight another day.”

Game features include:

Loot! Collect treasure to increase your score, plunder chests for weapon and armor upgrades or powerful relics – but make it to the exit in time or face death by dervish…

Genies! Incarcerated within the city, and most are friendly… Some will barter gear, upgrades, secrets, unlocks or protections in return for loot. Use one of three wishes to unlock a powerful benefit, or for a king’s ransom, buy a genie’s freedom in return for help in the final battle.

Improv! When your sword just isn’t enough, get creative: smash your enemies with explosive vases, blind them with a brick to the face, or force them into traps.

Ghouls! The city is filled with wretched spirits of all flavors, all with unique behaviors, all with the singular character defect that they want to kill you.

Smarts! The algorithms that create each level are tweaked to generate a logically laid out cityscape of interconnected chambers, courtyards and corridors.

Agility! The rhythmic interplay of blade and lash has been carefully tuned along with sprinting, crouching, sliding, leaping and vaulting to give a fluid, balanced and natural feel to the movement and melee.